Not enough disk space to copy a 232k file with 1.79gb showing free

I found an answer. I put all the files that I want to copy to the SD card into a folder on the desktop (or anywhere on the computer). Keep an eye on the size of this folder and don't fill it to a greater capacity than your SD card. I then reformatted the SD card MS-DOS(FAT). I then copied all the files from the desktop folder to the SD card in ONE GO. I was able to fill 1GB card with 934MB of photos. I might have been able to put a few more on. The SD card seemed to like all the files being copied in one go. There is a post somewhere that says there seems to be an unknown limit to the number of files on an SD card, but I didn't experience this. I put 110 photos on.

I too don't understand the HD space issue. Like the original post my SD card has about 50% of its 1GB capacity free and yet "there isn't enough space" to copy another file to it (and yes, the trash is empty).

How is the SD card formatted? For Windows or Mac? If for windows how many files do you have on it and are they all in the root directory of the card?

Windows formatted cards limit the number of files allowed in the root directory. If you put them all in a folder you can add files until your reach the size limitation of the card.

Have you emptied the trash? Also you are running pretty low on HD space, OS X runs best when it has a minimum of 10-15% of the HD available. For example if you have a 250GB HD at a minimum it should have 25GB available at all times! If you are like most users what is taking up most of your HD space is media such as photographs, music & movies. You can and probably should move these libraries to an external HD. Doing so is extremely simple and EHD's aren't very expensive. If you are backing up your HD onto an external HD (which you also should be doing!!!!!!!) then DO NOT, repeat DO NOT use the same EHD for double duty. In other words if you have your backup on an EHD get a second EHD to store your media!

Please read these articles from Apple on how to move your media libraries:

iMovie: How to move the Library to an EHD

iPhoto: How to move the Library to an EHD

iTunes: How to move the library to an EHD

The solution to put all files into a subdirectory and copy that subdirectory over is the correct solution. It has to do with the number of files allowed in the root directory for MS-DOS formatted disks - the solutions is correct written here, but the links below show the tech reason (for those who like closure :-) ). Put all in to a folder and copy the folder. If you use FAT32 (which might not be allowed by your final device) then more files can be put onto the root folder.

Here is the person who helped me: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2166984?start=0&tstart=0

Here is the tech stuff from microsoft on MSDOS file limits for those geeky enough to want to know like me. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc940351.aspx . See the 2nd bullet under the first table - I have long filenames so it was <512 files.

It's not too difficult to tell that you're low on HD space since the smallest HD supplied by Apple on Intel based iMacs was 160GB (needs a minimum of 16GB Free) back in 2006. I'm assuming because you are posting on an Intel iMac forum you have a Intel based iMac which was introduced in 2006. The relevance to not having adequate HD space is critical as you may be experiencing.

Regarding your SD card how is it formatted?

Had exactly the same problem, that worked for me! Great, thanks!